http://www.faulknerpedia.com/ 2009-08-28T11:59:07-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/ http://www.faulknerpedia.com/lib/images/favicon.ico text/html 2008-12-07T16:06:57-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=about_faulknerpedia&rev=1228687617&do=diff Faulknerpedia is a Web 2.0 resource for Faulkner studies created by Josh Doty, a graduate student at Auburn University. The purpose of the website is to aid users in reading the Faulkner's works, which are notoriously difficult. Please take a look around and make any suggestions you have on the Talk Page. text/html 2009-06-23T08:39:29-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=as_i_lay_dying&rev=1245764369&do=diff As I Lay Dying is William Faulkner's fifth novel and was published in 1930. It has multiple narrators, much like its predecessor The Sound and the Fury. The novel recounts the journey of the Bundren family to take the body of the mother, Addie, to Jefferson to be buried. There are fifteen narrators and fifty-nine chapters, the shortest of which is composed of only five words. text/html 2008-12-08T13:57:01-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=benjy_compson&rev=1228766221&do=diff Benjy is a son of Jason Compson III and Caroline Compson, formerly Caroline Bascomb, and the brother of Jason, Quentin, and Caddy. Benjy was born Maury Compson, named after his mother's brother, on April 7, 1895. When it became clear that he was mentally retarded, his mother changed his name to Benjamin, saying that it is a good name because it comes from the Bible (58). After he escapes from his family's yard and grabs a girl walking to school, his testicles are surgically removed (73). At … text/html 2009-06-23T08:16:08-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=biography&rev=1245762968&do=diff William Faulkner was born September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. His family moved to Oxford, Mississippi, when he was young, and he dropped out of high school in 1915. In 1918, he lied about his age and joined the Royal Canadian Airforce, but never saw combat. His childhood sweetheart, Estelle Oldham, married another man and had children by him, but they divorced and she and Faulkner were wed in 1929, the year that he published The Sound and the Fury. Despite his critical success, he… text/html 2008-12-08T13:58:01-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=caddy_compson&rev=1228766281&do=diff Caddy, whose formal name is Candace, is the daughter of Jason Compson III and Caroline Compson, formerly Caroline Bascomb. According to the Compson Appendix, Caddy was “[d]oomed and knew it, accepted the doom without either seeking or fleeing it” (336). In The Sound and the Fury, she, like so many other women in Faulkner's fiction, serves as the nonpresent center of the novel: her three brothers possess an obsession with her and her sexuality, an obsession perhaps engendered by the three of th… text/html 2009-04-07T19:47:59-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=caroline_compson&rev=1239151679&do=diff Caroline Compson, formerly Caroline Bascomb, married Jason Richmond Lycurgus Compson III and gave birth to Quentin, Caddy, Benjy, and Jason. Caroline seems to be a hypochondriac and is filled with self pity. After Dilsey informs her that she gave Benjy cake for his birthday, she shows no gratitude; instead, she asks “Do you want to poison him with that chap store cake . . . Is that what you are trying to do. Am I never to have one minute's peace” (60). She is also very self-conscious of marr… text/html 2009-06-23T08:42:19-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=characters&rev=1245764539&do=diff Bundrens * Addie Bundren * Anse Bundren * Cash Bundren * Darl Bundren * Jewel Bundren * Dewey Dell Bundren * Vardaman Bundren * Jewel Bundren Compsons * Benjy Compson * Caddy Compson * Caroline Compson * Jason Compson * Mr. Compson * Quentin Compson * Quentin and Incest * Quentin and Homosexuality text/html 2008-12-07T15:57:38-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=compsons&rev=1228687058&do=diff Compsons * Benjy Compson * Caddy Compson * Caroline Compson * Jason Compson * Mr. Compson * Quentin Compson * Quentin and Incest * Quentin and Homosexuality * Miss Quentin text/html 2008-12-08T14:02:09-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=dilsey_gibson&rev=1228766529&do=diff Dilsey is the mother of Versh, T.P., and Frony, the wife of Roskus Gibson, and a servant of the Compson household. She has been said by some to be a reflection of Mammy Callie, an ex-slave and servant to Faulkner's family who did not leave them even after she was freed. Because Caroline Compson often found herself unable to raise her children, Dilsey often did so for her, even going to far as to aid in the raising of Caddy's child Quentin, though she was very old. The Compson Appendix says of… text/html 2008-12-08T14:02:20-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=frony_gibson&rev=1228766540&do=diff Frony is Luster's mother and Dilsey's and Roskus' daughter. The Compson Appendix says that she “married a pullman porter and went to St Louis to live and later moved back to Memphis to make a home for her mother since Dilsey refused to go further than that” (348). text/html 2008-12-06T15:53:43-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=genealogy_in_the_sound_and_the_fury&rev=1228600423&do=diff text/html 2008-12-06T15:52:13-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=geneology_in_the_sound_and_the_fury&rev=1228600333&do=diff placeholder text/html 2008-12-07T15:57:17-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=gibsons&rev=1228687037&do=diff Gibsons * Dilsey Gibson * Frony Gibson * Roskus Gibson * T.P. Gibson * Versh Gibson * Luster Gibson text/html 2008-12-08T13:58:47-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=jason_compson&rev=1228766327&do=diff Jason Compson is the son of Jason Compson III and Caroline Compson, formerly Caroline Bascomb. He is a brother to Quentin Compson, Benjy Compson, and Caddy Compson, and he narrates the third section of The Sound and the Fury. In the Compson Appendix Faulkner writes that Jason is the “first sane Compson since before Culloden and (a childless bachelor) hence the last” (342). After his father and his brother Quentin die, Jason becomes the family's head. text/html 2008-12-08T14:04:17-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=luster_gibson&rev=1228766657&do=diff Luster is an African-American, the son of Frony Gibson, and a servant to the Compson family. He is Benjy's caretaker and playmate in 1928, when Benjy is thirty-three years old. The Compson Appendix says that Luster is 14 years old at this time and “was not only capable of the complete care and security of an idiot twice his age and three times his size, but could keep him entertained (348). text/html 2008-12-08T14:01:32-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=miss_quentin&rev=1228766492&do=diff Quentin is the daughter of Caddy Compson and is named after her uncle Quentin. It is unclear who her father is. Her mother, away from home, sends Quentin to the Compson home to be raised. Readers of The Sound and the Fury encounter her as a teenager; Jason, on April 6, 1928, says that she is seventeen years old. Quentin does not seem to be happy with her circumstances: she constantly fights with her uncle Jason Compson, who, after the deaths of Mr. Compson and Quentin Compson, is head of… text/html 2008-12-08T14:00:51-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=mr._compson&rev=1228766451&do=diff Mr. Compson is Caroline's husband and the father of Quentin, Caddy, Benjy, and Jason. He is an alcoholic, a misogynist, and a nihilist. His views on sexuality seem to be taken up by Quentin; Mr. Compson says: “Bad health is the primary reason for all life. Created by disease, within putrefaction, into decay” (44). He seems to be saying that it is life which is created “within putrefaction.” Specifically, he seems to be saying that a women's reproductive system is putrefaction. Later, … text/html 2008-12-07T15:58:03-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=others&rev=1228687083&do=diff Others * Shreve text/html 2008-12-07T16:13:07-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=quentin_and_homosexuality&rev=1228687987&do=diff In both The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!, there are numerous thinly-veiled references to Quentin possibly being homosexual. In The Sound and the Fury, after Quentin is arrested, he sees his roommate Shreve and notices that “[h]e had on a pair of my flannel pants, like a glove. I didn't remember forgetting them. I didn't remember how many chins Mrs Bland had, either. The prettiest girl was with Gerald in front, too” (141). This passage is significant not only because Shreve is we… text/html 2008-12-05T17:41:03-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=quentin_and_incest&rev=1228520463&do=diff Many readers believe that Quentin has sex with his sister, Caddy, but this is simply not true. One reading of why he would think of incest is that he cannot reconcile Caddy's sexuality with his own lingering virginity, so he wants to tell their father that they have committed incest so that they can “go away amid the pointing and the horror the clean flame” (149). Doing so would give Quentin some control over Caddy's sexuality as well as erase, at least in others' minds, the fact that he is a … text/html 2008-12-08T14:01:08-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=quentin_compson&rev=1228766468&do=diff Quentin is a son of Jason Compson III and Caroline Compson, formerly Caroline Bascomb. He is a brother to Benjy Compson, Caddy Compson, and Jason Compson. He narrates the second section of The Sound and the Fury and is the narrator of Absalom, Absalom!. He committed suicide in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 2, 1910. text/html 2009-08-26T20:13:01-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=reading_benjy_s_section&rev=1251335581&do=diff First, we will learn to decipher Benjy's thoughts. Doing so requires a mix of imagination and logic, but, as with all things, practice makes perfect. Let us consider the first paragraph of the novel: “Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. They were coming toward where the flag was and I went along the fence. Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower tree. They took the flag out, and they were hitting. Then they put the flag back and they went to the… text/html 2008-12-07T15:10:42-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=reading_guides&rev=1228684242&do=diff Reading The Sound and the Fury * Reading Benjy's Section * Reading Quentin's Section * Reading Jason's Section * Reading the Final Section text/html 2008-12-07T14:39:43-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=reading_jason_s_section&rev=1228682383&do=diff While Jason’s section might seem to be much less complex than either Benjy’s or Quentin’s sections due to his more straightforward style of narration, readers should take care not to be lulled into complacency. He tends to avoid naming subjects with which he is uncomfortable; here, he is discussing his uncle Maury’s behavior at Mr. Comson’s funeral: text/html 2009-01-27T11:47:42-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=reading_quentin_s_section&rev=1233078462&do=diff Quentin narrates in a stream of consciousness style, much like his brother Benjy. However, while Benjy's thoughts are easily scattered and redirected by external stimuli, Quentin is relatively consistent. We can learn much about Quentin's character by examining the way he narrates; for instance, as he gazes out of his window down at his fellow Harvard students running to chapel, his narration goes from steady and almost poetic to disjointed: text/html 2008-12-05T17:13:20-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=reading_quentin_s_section_in_the_sound_and_the_fury&rev=1228518800&do=diff Quentin narrates in a stream of consciousness style, much like his brother Benjy. However, while Benjy's thoughts are easily scattered and redirected by external stimuli, Quentin is relatively consistent. We can learn much about Quentin's character by examining the way he narrates; for instance, as he gazes out of his window down at his fellow Harvard students running to chapel, his narration goes from steady and almost poetic to disjointed: text/html 2008-12-07T14:41:10-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=reading_the_final_section&rev=1228682470&do=diff The last section of The Sound and the Fury is unique in that is is not narrated in the first person by one of the Compson brothers. It focuses mostly on Dilsey and relates Quentin’s escape and the sermon of Reverend Shegog. Because it is narrated in the third person, it is sometimes thought of as being the easiest section to read; however, as with all of Faulkner’s works, it’s best to read carefully and critically. text/html 2008-12-05T21:28:40-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=reading_the_sound_and_the_fury&rev=1228534120&do=diff The Sound and the Fury, published in 1929, is a notoriously challenging novel because of Faulkner's use of the stream of consciousness technique, a complex literary style that allows an author to make characters' thoughts always apparent while they are narrating. In the case of The Sound and the Fury, the first section of the book is narrated in a stream of consciousness style by Benjy Compson, a mentally retarded thirty-three-year-old whose thoughts routinely skip backwards and forwards in tim… text/html 2008-12-08T14:02:32-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=roskus_gibson&rev=1228766552&do=diff Roskus is Dilsey's husband, the father of Versh, T.P., and Frony, and a servant of the Compson household. Little about him is made apparent in The Sound and the Fury other than his rheumatism (9); like Versh, he does not appear in the Compson Appendix. text/html 2008-12-07T16:14:21-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=shreve&rev=1228688061&do=diff Shreve is surnamed “MacKenzie” in The Sound and the Fury and “McCannon” in Absalom, Absalom!. In both novels, he is a Canadian and Quentin's roommate at Harvard University. See Also: Quentin and Homosexuality text/html 2008-12-05T15:45:18-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=start&rev=1228513518&do=diff Welcome to Faulknerpedia. text/html 2008-12-08T14:03:01-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=t.p._gibson&rev=1228766581&do=diff T.P. is a son of Dilsey Gibson and Roskus Gibson, and a servant to the Compson family. He is Benjy's caretaker and playmate during Benjy's adolescence. He is 18 years old while he takes care of Benjy (10), and the Compson Appendix says that he moved to Memphis after the events of The Sound and the Fury. text/html 2009-04-07T19:50:36-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=talk_page&rev=1239151836&do=diff This page's intent is to discussion of Faulknerpedia, particularly comments or suggestions about pages you'd like someone to make. text/html 2009-06-23T07:52:47-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=the_sound_and_the_fury&rev=1245761567&do=diff The Sound and the Fury is Faulkner's third novel and was published in 1929. It is included in many high school and university curricula, and routinely makes “Best Novels” lists. The novel details the fall of the Compson family. It is broken into four sections; the first is narrated by Benjy Compson, the second is narrated by his brother Quentin Compson, the third is narrated by Jason Compson, and the fourth is narrated in the third person. The Compson Appendix was written for The Por… text/html 2008-12-07T15:26:08-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=topbar&rev=1228685168&do=diff * Faulkner * Biography * Works * The Sound and the Fury * Genealogy in The Sound and the Fury * List of Faulkner's Works * Reading Guides * Reading The Sound and the Fury * Reading Benjy's Section * Reading Quentin's Section * Reading Jason's Section * Reading the Final Section text/html 2008-12-09T15:04:27-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=versh_gibson&rev=1228856667&do=diff Versh is Dilsey's and Roskus' eldest child and Benjy's earliest caretaker. Like Roskus, he is not mentioned in the Compson Appendix, but he appears in “That Evening Sun” as well as The Sound and the Fury. See Also: Gibsons Works The Sound and the Fury “That Evening Sun” text/html 2009-06-25T09:25:47-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=welcome_to_faulknerpedia&rev=1245939947&do=diff Faulknerpedia is a Web 2.0 resource for the study of the great American author William Faulkner. The articles in Faulknerpedia are keyed to the Modern Library editions of Faulkner's works. As of now, write and edit powers are restricted to registered users; however, any user can make suggestions on the Talk Page without first registering. The website is going through a few growing pains, particularly malicious editing, but I'm very pleased with our userbase adding new material and being v… text/html 2009-06-23T07:51:42-05:00 http://www.faulknerpedia.com/doku.php?id=works&rev=1245761502&do=diff Novels * Soldiers' Pay (1926) * Mosquitoes (1927) * Sartoris/Flags in the Dust (1929/1973) * The Sound and the Fury (1929) * As I Lay Dying (1930) * Sanctuary (1931) * Light in August (1932) * Pylon (1935) * Absalom, Absalom! (1936) * The Unvanquished (1938) * If I Forget Thee Jerusalem (The Wild Palms/Old Man) (1939) * The Hamlet (1940) * Go Down, Moses (1942) * Intruder in the Dust (1948) * Requiem for a Nun (1951) * A Fable (1954) * The Town …